Social Security Handbook

If you receive a government pension, certain circumstances cause
an offset against your Social Security benefit. Benefits payable
as a spouse, divorced spouse, surviving spouse, surviving divorced
spouse, or a deemed spouse may be reduced if the person receives
periodic payments based on his or her own employment in the Federal
Government, State or political subdivision that was not covered under
Social Security.

For government pension purposes, a State or political subdivision
includes the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the
Northern Mariana Islands.

The offset is effective if you apply for Social Security benefits
in or after December 1977, unless you meet one of the following exceptions:

The offset does not apply for any month you:

Were entitled to or eligible for the government pension
for any month between December 1977 through November 1982; and

Meet all the requirements for entitlement that were
in effect and being administered in January 1977;

The offset does not apply to benefits payable December
1982 and later if you:

Were entitled to or eligible for the government pension
before July 1, 1983; and

Were receiving one-half support from the retirement
or disability insurance beneficiary at the time that beneficiary
either became entitled to benefits, began a period of disability,
or died;

You were a Federal, State or local government employee
and you were eligible for and filed an application for Social Security
spouse’s benefits before April 1, 2004; or

You were a Federal, State or local government employee
whose pension is based on work covered by both Social Security and
the pension plan on your last day of employment and your last day
at work was before July 1, 2004; or

You were a Federal, State or local government employee
whose pension is based on a job where you were paying Social Security
taxes during the last 60 months of employment and your last day of
employment was July 1, 2004, or later; or

You were a Federal employee first hired after December
31, 1983, and you are covered under Social Security by law; or

You were a Federal employee who chose to switch from
the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) to employment covered
under Social Security on or before December 31, 1987, and you worked
under Federal covered employment in the last 60 months of Federal
service; or

You were a Federal employee who chose to switch from
the CSRS to employment covered under Social Security after December
31, 1987, you worked under Federal covered employment in the last
60 months or more during the period beginning January 1988, and ending
with the first month of entitlement to spouse’s benefits. The 60
months need not be consecutive, but must be worked prior to entitlement
to spouse’s benefits.

If you do not meet one of the exceptions above and you receive
a government pension, your Social Security benefit is reduced by
one of the following amounts:

If you were eligible for a government pension before July 1983, your Social Security benefits are reduced
by 100 percent of your government pension; or

If you are eligible for a government pension after June 1983, your Social Security benefits are reduced
by two-thirds the amount of your government pension.

Effective with benefits payable for December 1984 and later,
the two-thirds reduction rate applies to all situations where the
offset applies. This is true regardless of when you were first eligible
for a government pension.

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